Friday 11 October 2013

Day 40 11-10-2013 Fri Sorrento

Our destination today was the island of Capri (pronounced kah pree). 

For both of us, we had heard about this romantic place from an early age. Joan knew that the 50’s singer Gracie Fields had a home there. In my case I remember my siblings playing a popular German song back in the 50’s with the lyrics

O wenn bei Kapri
die rote Sonne
ins Meer versinkt,
dann gehen die Fischer
auf ihren Schiffen
ins Meer hinaus

Someone please write me details about his song.

The reality of the island didn’t quite co-incide with the dreamy image we held. This is tourist central and was packed with people – at least in the central piazza precincts of two main communities of Capri (142m) and Anacapri (286m). 

I’m getting ahead of myself. After arriving by ferry from Sorrento, we ascended a funicular from the port area to the town of Capri. Tourist central means shops galore. The mystery is how they make a living – none of them had any customers we could see.


Almost immediately we boarded one of the cute little buses for the further ascent to Anacapri. To get there the road literally climbs up along the side of a vertical cliff. At one point the roadway is actually suspended outside the cliff face. And it has switch-backs – all exciting stuff, especially when you are standing as we were.


As advised by Rick Steve, we alighted at the second stop – cemetery station, and walked back into Anacapri. As usual we got disoriented (i.e. lost, because the €1 tourist map only had names on the major streets – my hair is getting much thinner). Fortunately helpful locals pointed us in the right direction.

Our plan had been to go even higher, taking the chairlift to Monte Solara (589m). Over the last week I had been observing Capri from Naples, Sorrento, Herculaneum and Pompeii, and noticed that it always had cloud covering the highest part, so we were of two minds about whether to do this. But then I noticed a peak with a cross that was lit by sunshine, so we decided to go for it. Only after getting on the chairlift did I realise we were going to a different, higher peak. Sure enough, as we approached the summit we entered cloudland. This was similar to our experience on Vesuvius, only more so. Not having much previous experience of this, it was great to revel in something different. I was interested to note that a) it can have such a noticeable effect even at short range, say 5m and b) that we did not accumulate any obvious layer of moisture.






We had lunch back down in Anacapri at a place at the edge of town where fortunately a tour group was vacating places to sit. We had an excellent ravioli caprese (for the thick, including me, ravioli from Capri) accompanied by an excellent 2009 Aglianco as recommended by Brian.

Afterward we headed to the main attractions – two San Michele’s. One was a church with a painted tile floor depicting heaven on earth and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The animals all have human expressions. 
Overview from the balcony

Overview from the balcony



















The other was an estate created by a Swedish doctor/socialite Axel Munthe (1857-1949) in the early part of the 20th century. He was visited by Oscar Wilde, DH Lawrence and the Queen of Sweden, who came to live on the island for her “health”. He had a keen sense for good real estate, as the location is absolutely superb, with fantastic views down to Capri and the port, and across to the mainland and Naples. At the cliff end of the property was a derelict chapel San Michele which he refurbished and made into his library. On the seaward end is a sphinx looking out over the sea. He gifted the estate to the Swedish government, which has a consulate next door.
At the entrance - he was an animal lover


What a nice man















The Sphinx

Port of Capri and mainland

This is the road!!




The Sphinx from lower level



On the way back to the bus we dropped into the Casa Rosa, a house belonging to an American general from the Confederacy.






Back in the port area, as we were about to buy tickets for the ferry back to Sorrento, we were approached by an elderly American woman offering two tickets they had bought for someone who could not make it. The tickets seemed genuine (never having seen these before – trusting souls that we are) so we got them at a slight discount. Everyone happy.

This is the first day for over a week that we have returned home in good shape, with feet that did not hurt. Yippee!


For dinner we had self-delivered take-away pizza and another 2009 Aglianico. Dessert was left-over biscotti.

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